ByAlex Zarska | November 5, 2018

Weill Cornell Medicine plans to use $2.7 million in funding to address the shortage of underrepresented minorities in the healthcare professions. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, 1,410 African-American men applied to medical schools in 1978. Forty years later, that number has dropped to 1,337. Earlier this summer, Weill received a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration in order to establish a Diversity Center of Excellence. The Center of Excellence, will function under the Cornell Center of Health Equity, which is a research initiative that analyzes health disparities and solutions to various stigmatized conditions.

ByGayatri Somaiya | October 23, 2018

Through a recently created online course, faculty, graduate students, graduate teaching assistants and postdoctoral fellows across all disciplines will learn how to engage with students to create more diverse teaching environments.

Henry Lavacude-Cola ’22 described the sessions as “a little uncomfortable” at first due to the fact that he didn’t know anyone in his group, but he said that by the end, he felt “more comfortable sharing” aspects of his identity.

The Sun’s thoroughly researched report on diversity in the School of Hotel Administration underscores the need to look beyond topline statistics when cultivating a diverse and supportive educational environment. While the hotel school has made strides in increasing the number of enrolled students who are underrepresented minorities, The Sun’s interviews with both students and professors indicate Cornell has not yet created a learning space in which all faculty and students feel represented and attended to equally. The University must continue to prioritize follow-through as well as the more visible outreach. The goal is not just to hire a more diverse pool of professors; it is to retain those professors for longer than a few years, whether with tenure and other means. The goal is not just to increase minority enrollment; it is to provide those students with the resources to be successful.

Several previous and current faculty members of the hotel school said that the administration is often too focused on gender diversity to realize the importance or put the effort into achieving racial diversity.